LOST IN SPACE-THE KEEPER PART TWO
THE KEEPER PART TWO WRITER-BARNEY SLATER DIR-HARRY HARRIS NARRATION: Last week, as you recall, Dr. Smith and The Robot had waited in hiding for the alien known as the Keeper to leave his giant spaceship, a spaceship filled with hundreds of caged animals gathered from every corner of the UNIVERSE. The nefarious Dr. Smith now plans to steal the monstrous space vehicle and return with it to Earth. TEASER-not fully recapped-scene with tag does not occur--we start out with Smith and Robot at night by ship as Keeper leaves--there is no earlier scene with John and Don saving Penny, Will, and Smith and then talking to Keeper, who goes inside his ship; we begin with... Smith and the Robot go into the Keeper's spaceship. Robot scans and computes the controls, warning Smith not to tamper with the alien controls. Smith touches two controls. Doors open. "I think I may have done something wrong." Smith calls the Robot a ninny and pulls him outside, down the ramp, and behind the rocks, "It's all your fault, you tin plated fool!" Robot calls out, "Danger! Extreme Danger! All Creatures Escaping!" Monsters come running out. There are monster feet, arms, and hands; several cyclops monsters, an alien mummy like man monster from WISH UPON A STAR, the bush man from THE RAFT, and the furry biped from the beginning of THE KEEPERS PART ONE. Smith screams as a bat faced thing flies over head and then at him! He ducks down and it passes over twice. It lands and the Robot fires a blast at Smith's orders and blows up the monster bat (which possessed funny eyes and beaklike nose). Robot claims a relative time of safety has occurred. Smith says, "Let's get back to the complete safety of the Jupiter II." They move away; Smith tells Robot this may be beneficial to them but the Robot says, "That does not compute." Smith thinks now the Keeper can be persuaded to take them back to Earth--what else can he do?" Robot says, "Destroy all of us for what you have done." Smith makes the Robot erase his memory banks of what happened. Another bat thing has landed on a rock and screams like Dr. Smith in a terror tantrum. Smith tells the Robot, "Run for your life!" ACT ONE Morning: Don and John work on the pipes to the irrigation system. John tells Don it is quite an accomplishment Smith did as much as he did on it. Don feels Smith only likes to do two things--sleep and eat. They work on a turn off valve. John spots something and tells Don not to move. Not far is a giant lizard, sprouting a tremendous tongue! It towers over the two of them and the effects are marvelous, much better than the giant effects in THE OASIS. When John wants to toss a pipe at it, Don says, "Trying to stop that lizard is like trying to fight a war with a toothpick." When John tells Don to run first, Don says, "We run together or we don't run at all." John tosses the pipe at it and the lizard chases the pair to the Jupiter II. Don turns on the forcefield to full and it stops the monster giant--which John links to the Keeper's iguanadon. Later---Smith comes out of his cabin, "Ahh, another day." He awakens the Robot who tells him, "I do not sleep." It is 14 past 8 o'clock, Thursday, March. Smith feels they will soon be going home. Don slips down quietly as Smith talks to himself and defends it, with saying talking to oneself is preferable to talking to a dolt. They have some more verbal sparring. Smith tells Don to lead on MacDuff when John wants to see Smith in the Control Room. John tells Smith, "You're not the only one who's hungry this morning, Dr. Smith." John tells Don it came back one hour ago, "Dr. Smith if you're hiding anything from me..." When Smith feigns innocence, Don says, "You're not exactly George Washington when it comes to telling the truth, Smith." The Keeper walks to the lizard and uses his staff to send the lizard away and then the alien man walks through the force field. John comes out and tells the Keeper if he didn't come to them, he would have went to his spaceship; the Keeper wonders if that were true, "I should destroy all of you now, reduce you to the pitiful grains of dust which the winds would blow across the wastelands of this planet." He goes insulting them and also says, "You are less than the insects that I crush beneath my feet as I walk." Maureen and Judy come outside. The Keeper asks for her hand, John nods that it is alright. He finds her clear---he is looking for a guilty conscience, "Someone released my animals." When Smith won't take his hand, Don chimes in, "Maybe you've got something to hide, Smith." Smith says, "I never suffer from conscience." When Smith concedes, the Keeper's belt lights up. Smith lies to get out of it, then tells the truth. The Keeper says, "You have released hundreds of animals--they will eventually take over this planet. You will not be able to perform the most simplest task outside without being exposed to danger." Smith tells him it is not humane to leave them. Maureen wonders why he won't summon them back. Keeper tells her he may lose some smaller animals since animals prey on one another, "Yes, I have lost some animals but on the other hand, I have gained two rare and valuable specimens." John asks, "What does that mean?" The Keeper says, "You are to give me the children, Penny and Will, if not I will leave you at the mercy of the animals. Think about it--Penny and Will in exchange for your lives." ACT TWO Maureen tells the Keeper, "You can't have Will and Penny. We won't give them to you--not even if every foot of this planet crawls with dangerous animals." John tells the Keeper, "You've been after the children since you arrived--you just used Dr. Smith as an excuse." Keeper says it is a typical animals reaction--the parents springing to the defense of their young. Maureen goes on trying, "Now you just listen to me, you're wasting your time. You just take your animals and go back where you belong because if you want to take Will and Penny--you've got to fight us for them!" Don tells the Keeper, "I think you'd better go." He responds, "As you wish," but then tells the parents their children will be well cared for. Maureen asks, "Aren't you forgetting a small ingredient for happiness known as love?" He calls love an emotional weakness common to Earth people and he goes have it. John says, "Well, we also have an emotional called anger--perhaps you should know of it." He moves at the Keeper but the alien says, "Do not come any closer, you man, I have no desire to harm you." Don and Maureen get John inside, Judy follows. Keeper stops Smith with his staff even though Smith says, "They need me." He wants to punish Smith who will do anything to make amends. Keeper tells Smith to come to his spaceship using a ball device that will protect him from the monsters and animals. Keeper, before he leaves, tells Smith, "It would be unwise not to do as I say." In his spaceship, the Keeper talks to his alien contact about having given the Earthers an ultimatum. The contact tells him, "You must not your desire for these Earth children supersede all else. You have many rare specimens. They must be protected." Smith uses the ball to protect himself from a new giant lizard with fins on its head (this one seems like one from the Irwin Allen movie THE LOST WORLD). Smith gets to the Keeper's spaceship, "Well, here I am." The Keeper stares blankly, A fact which seems to please you a great deal more than me." He asks Smith if he should put him in a cage and hang a sign on that reads: FOOLISH EARTH MAN, LOW INTELLIGENCE LEVEL, HAS LITTLE REGARD OR LOYALTY TO ITS KIND, THE SPECIMEN MUST BE REGARDED AS THE WORST EXAMPLE OF ITS SPECIES. He tells Smith to get the children but Smith says no, he couldn't take them. As for convincing the parents, Smith tells him that would never work. The Keeper moves to the pit and shows him the monster inside. If Smith fails, that is his fate. "Remember what you have seen." ACT THREE Judy tells Don maybe they have a way out. Don snaps, "How, we sprout wings and fly to another planet?" He apologizes but Judy tells him they are all jumpy. She suggests to Don that she and he go to the Keeper, telling him she is not sure how to have said it and not sure she has the right to ask him to go. Don says, "You know how I feel about the kids." Judy says, "I Knew you wouldn't refuse." She didn't tell her parents and they won't. They will go first chance they can get. Smith is in the control room chair talking to John, "I assure you, Will is like my own son and as for Penny, the dear child is an absolute angel." John says, "Well, your deep feelings toward the children move me close to tears, Dr. Smith." Smith dismisses his sarcasm--this is painful for him. John says, "Knowing how sensitive you are to pain..." Smith tells him they should give the children to the Keeper. John stands up, "Smith, I oughta break your neck!" Smith stands up and argues in favor of giving the kids to the Keeper. When they are rescued they can get Will and Penny back. Smith runs off, passing Maureen who came out of the closet area to the lower deck (?). Smith goes into this area--which supposedly goes down to the lower deck (also see SPACE BEAUTY, TARGET: EARTH, THE FLAMING PLANET, DEADLIEST OF THE SPECIES for this room--hallway down). She has a clipboard and tells John that Smith looks like the cat who swallowed the canary, "What's he up to now?" When John tells her he has a solution, she says, "I know I shouldn't ask but I just can't help myself." John tells her. Smith listens at the corner of that hall alcove area as John suggests they offer themselves, "We've lived a good bit of our lives." The two leave to go to the Keeper's spaceship. Some short time later, Judy and Don leave the spaceship. Judy says, "I was just thinking, maybe we should tell mom and dad." Don doesn't think so. They depart, watched by Smith from the porthole to the side of the doorway. When John and Maureen arrive, the Keeper immediately tells them the reason for their trip was futile. Maureen says, "Oh, your even worse than some of your animals." The Keeper tells them he is both moved and tempted to take them. John tells him, "We'd be less trouble." Keeper claims they would not adjust so easily to captivity. Don calls in. Keeper recognizes this quality about humans, "It would seem another of your party is anxious to make a great sacrifice." Keeper and Maureen go to greet them. John, angry, throws the staff down onto the floor and moves out with them. The staff lights go off. Keeper stands at the ramp, "You earth people continue to amaze me." Judy tells Maureen it was her idea. Maureen says, "Oh, Judy, it was a wonderful thing to do." Keeper calls them both exceedingly handsome but at the first opportunity they'd try to escape. He calls their meeting at an end and as they leave, he calls forth, "Send me the children." As this is going on, the staff shorts out and the pit cell lights smoke and go out. Smoke and sparks come from it. The Keeper goes inside and finds his staff on the floor. As he examines it, a claw sneaks up behind him and chokes him to the floor. ACT FOUR Control Room: Penny and Will cannot find anyone. The force field is off and Penny tells Will, "That only stops people from coming in, not going out." NOTE: This doesn't appear to be the case in other episodes---The Robot in THERE WERE GIANTS shut the forcefield to leave the area inside it. Also--how would anyone going out get back in? Smith comes to Penny and Will and tells them about what their parents, their sister and Major West are doing, "They may never return." Penny says, "Please don't talk like that." Smith cons them to go to the Keeper to plead with him. Penny says, "I dunno, Dr. Smith, the Keeper wants to add us to his collection pretty bad." Smith tells her perhaps the tears of children will move a heart of stone. Smith tells them of the animals, "Never fear Smith is here. I will protect you," and shows them the ball. Later, Judy and Maureen (who has a laser gun) come back to the ship from around the back of it; John comes back from the front area with a laser rifle and Don runs out from inside the spaceship. John and Don will go look for them--Smith's gone and they all think the same thing. Don will take the Chariot and cover the east area of the woods. Maureen tells Judy, "Judy, I'm going to go look for them, too." She also tells Judy to stay at the ship in case they come back. Smith empties his shoes, quoting that an army crawls on its stomach. Will tells him it will be dark soon. Smith says, "The pain, the pain." The others search amid the roars of imagined monsters. Don does get to see a fat horned lizard giant (another refugee from THE LOST WORLD) as it eats a bush. John is wearing a necklace that can be seen beneath his shirt--some sort of Saint medal perhaps. Smith, Will, and Penny have flashlights on as it gets dark. Penny says, "Maybe we'd better get back to the Jupiter II, Dr. Smith." Will agrees; Smith makes fun of them being afraid. Will says, "Well, I can remember times when you weren't so brave yourself." Smith tells him, "For one so young, you have a very old memory." When a thing approaches them with a bright light, Smith uses the ball, "Never fear, Smith is here." But it turns out to be Don, who tells him, "I oughta break your neck." Penny tells Don what they were doing and the kids agree the three of them decided to do it together. Don looks, "You sure this character didn't put you up to this, Will?" Will backs up Smith's story that they thought of it together. Don takes them toward the Chariot. Gun drawn, Maureen walks up the ramp to the Keeper's ship and finds him inside on the floor. At first, she coldly says, "Mister Keeper." When she sees he's hurt, she helps him up and shows compassion, "Are you alright?" She also tells him he must rest. The Keeper looks at her, "After what I have done, you can show kindness to me--you are indeed unusual creatures." When she asks about Will and Penny, he shows concern, "They are running around outside---they're in extreme danger." She hands him his staff and they hold it together for a moment--which seems to mean something but this may go unnoticed--perhaps Maureen transferred something to the Keeper--maybe her love and kindness. They go out together. Smith has to rest and takes his boot off to empty a rock out. Don wants to go on but when Will protests for them to wait for Smith, Smith tells him, "Go on, Will." A giant mutated spider-like monster towers over them. Don tells them to head for the Chariot when he gives the word. He fires the laser rifle and yells at them to run. They run. Smith, boot in hand, runs after them. The monster follows. Don fires it again as Smith, Penny, and Will get into the Chariot. Don follows but orders the hatch be closed. Will cannot do it; Smith asks Don to help them. They close it but now the monster has its bulk on the Chariot top, holding them. The power unit is not strong enough to pull them away. Smith tells Don he knows how to stop it but finds he dropped the ball while running. Don calls the Jupiter II. John answers on the pull mike. Don calls, "John, I've got the children and we're at the Chariot but we're being attacked by some kind of a monster." He tells John the laser rifle didn't do any good, "We're trapped and we need help!" John says, "I'm on my way! He runs out, the spider shakes the Chariot, Maureen and the Keeper continue looking (hey, wait--couldn't the Keeper just call the monster back from wherever he was?). One of 8 claws smashes the bubble hatch and attacks. Smith, Penny, Will, and Don punch at it away from themselves. Smith screams wildly. John arrives and fires his laser rifle twice. The spider moves off the chariot which has its treads half in the dirt. John throws two grenades as it comes at him. As is about to throw a third, the Keeper finds it and summons it back to his spaceship. The alien watches as John and Maureen help the others out of the Chariot, Maureen helping Don and Smith out. The Keeper seems to smirk or smile. Smith limps away. Camp--morning--Will calls Mom, Dad, and Don to come out quick. John asks, "What's wrong, Will?" "Nothing's wrong---that's why I called. Listen, you don't hear anything--there are no animal noises--the Keeper must've called them all back." The Keeper appears, "The boy is right." All the animals are back in their cages about his starship except one--as a reminder he will leave this one with them. Don yells, "We've had enough trouble with your monsters. Take him away." Keeper figures it is fitting for all the trouble "they have caused him"!!! "Now, I bid you farewell." He vanishes. John says, "C'mon Will." The four start inside but hear a scream. Will says, "The animal!" They four follow it to find...Smith in a glass cage. Don jokes, "Have you ever seen a more dangerous animal." The cage won't open, making Smith very mad. John tells Will to go get the tool kit. Don calls, "Take your time, Will, I want to enjoy this as long as possible." Smith yells. CLIFFHANGER: Night in front of the Jupiter II: Don tells John, "I don't know why your foolin' around with it?" John explains if he can realign and rewire the generator on the force field it can last another ten years. "The way I figure it, our food and power supply is geared to last ten years--we might as well run out of everything all at once." Don says, "Oh, you're just full of cheerful thoughts tonight, aren't ya?" Robot comes, "Unidentified Flying Object of vehicular nature is in approach pattern." They don't see anything but an alarm rings---scanner alarm. John and Don run in. Smith with his night cap and gown on and Will in his pajamas run in. Will notes something is coming in fast--Smith says, "Nothing on Earth ever traveled that fast." Judy arrives in her robe, "Will, you should be in bed." Smith tells her, "We're being invades by monsters, my dear." John orders Don to check the forcefield and break out the lasers just in case, "You check the Robot, Smith. The forcefield will protect you." Smith says, "Forcefield, indeed." NOTE: Perhaps this is a reaction to having seen the Keeper walk right through it. Will tells him he will go with him. Smith says, "Thank you, my boy, on second thought you know as much about the Robot as I do--you might as well go and..." he catches John's stare and takes Will out with him. Robot tells him the object has landed one half mile away, is a strange ship, and its atomic structure by analysis is not terrestrial but there are two entities aboard. Morning--John, Don, Will, and Smith move up on a small craft. Will, Don, and John have laser guns. John doesn't believe in taking chances and he and Don move up to it. Smith says, "I wonder what kind of horrible creature lurks inside that spaceship." Will figures none at all since John is signaling to Don it is all clear to go inside. As they go into it, Smith shivers, chilled. He asks Will to withdraw with him over the ridge to keep out of the wind. The space rocket has a door that can turned from the wheel-a VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA door. Don looks in, "They must have been little green men." John says, "Oh, very funny." They find a hammock with the initials AP and the name Tucker, "Now who could AP Tucker be and what would he be doing in a ship like this?" Don notices too late the door closing. Smith jogs in place over the ridge. He stops, does fighting moves, Will leaves. A two headed shadow is on the floor--something is up on the ridge and sneaking up on Smith. Smith looks up and screams hideously. REVIEW: I think it speaks for itself; Rennie is a good actor and controls the Keeper's obsession, walking the line between it and his better judgement. He was, however, an alien with a different set of morality, which he may have reinvented by the time he encounters the Robinsons for the last time--but he sounds as mean as ever when he leaves. Everything seemed to jell in this story, even Smith's scenes were well handled and not overlong or overdone as they would be later on in the series beginning with THE SPACE CROPPERS. As good as both part of THE KEEPER are, they also heralded the way for more alien guest stars with unbelievable powers and obsessions---and the scripts would get sillier and sillier--the very next episode features a rather unbelievable character guest star. This desire for far out and obsessed or divergent aliens, coupled with the Batman competition on ABC at the same time, made LOST IN SPACE change to a silly affair. Realize, that while LOST IN SPACE, with THE KEEPER was airing in January of 1966, BATMAN was first airing its first episode. Immediately following this we got the unlikely hero of THE SKY PIRATE with is goofy Will-Tucker scenes, GHOST IN SPACE with its goofy Dr. Smith stuff and also very bad science, and eventually the death knell for LOST IN SPACE's serious side--THE SPACE CROPPERS. Who knows? If LOST stayed straight, perhaps it wouldn't have survived as long as it did, for they did have to go up against the campy BATMAN. Don takes a page from Smith's book and sneaks about while the Doctor is talking to himself.